                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                      October 12, 1994

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS
Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public
service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement
by the CDC, the CDC Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction
of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC
Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information.
Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Two French Ex-Officials Probed in AIDS Scandal"
"BioChem Pharma Corrects and Replaces Previous Announcement"
"Biologic-DT Receives 510 (k) Approval"
"Oxford GlycoSystems Introduces New Product to Sequence 
Carbohydrates Quickly, Easily; Two Companion Products Also 
Developed"
"The Myth of Invulnerability: Lesbians and HIV Disease"
"Fear of HIV Infection from Biting Not Supported by Research"
"Kaposi's Sarcoma, Vascular Permeability, and Scientific 
Integrity: In Reply"
"Serial Killer With a Spit Sink"
"Profile: Southern Comforts"
Educated Traveler: Good Deeds"
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"Two French Ex-Officials Probed in AIDS Scandal"
Reuters (10/11/94)
     Gaston Rimareix and Charles-Henri Filippi, two former advisers to
former French Socialist ministers, were officially placed under 
investigation Tuesday as the continuing inquiry into why 1,250 
hemophiliacs received HIV-infected blood during the mid-1980s 
broadens.  Both Rimareix and Filippi will be investigated as 
accomplices to poisoning.  A total of seven former government 
officials are now being investigated in the AIDS scandal, which 
is so far responsible for the deaths of more than 400 of the 
patients who were infected.  The former officials are accused of 
helping delay HIV tests on blood products until France had 
developed its own version of an existing U.S. screening test.  
Filippi has refused to comment, but Rimareix told reporters that 
"this accusation is serious and particularly ignominious...I 
reject it."
      
"BioChem Pharma Corrects and Replaces Previous Announcement"
Business Wire (10/11/94)
     Michael G. Grey has been appointed president of BioChem 
Therapeutic Inc., a wholly owned therapeutic subsidiary of 
BioChem Pharma, Inc.  Grey will oversee all of BioChem 
Therapeutic's operations--including research, development, and 
administration.  In collaboration with Glaxo Holdings plc, 
BioChem Therapeutic has two products, 3TC and Lamivudine, that 
are in late stage clinical development.  Phase II/III clinical 
trial results of 3TC, which is being developed to treat AIDS, 
will be presented at an HIV conference in Glasgow in November.  
Late Phase II findings of Lamivudine for the treatment of chronic
hepatitis B infection will be presented in early November at the 
American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.
      
"Biologic-DT Receives 510 (k) Approval"
PR Newswire (10/11/94)
     Formal 510 (k) Premarket Notification Approval has been granted 
to HemoCleanse, Inc. by the Food and Drug Administration to 
market HemoCleanse's Biologic-DT System for drug overdose 
treatment.  The Biologic System treats and removes toxins from 
the blood outside of the body while balancing critical blood 
chemistries.  HemoCleanse, with Biocontrol Technology, Inc., and 
its subsidiary IDT, Inc., is holding clinical trials of the 
Biologic-HT System, which converts the DT into a hyperthermia 
therapy in patients with HIV and AIDS.
      
"Oxford GlycoSystems Introduces New Product to Sequence 
Carbohydrates Quickly, Easily; Two Companion Products Also 
Developed"
PR Newswire (10/11/94)
     Oxford GlycoSystems on Tuesday introduced the RAAM 2000 
GlycoSequencer, the first carbohydrate sequencer that 
automatically determines the structure of flourescently labeled 
carbohydrates.  The device is expected to facilitate the study of
carbohydrates, which are factors in diseases including cancer and
AIDS.  The RAAM 2000 provides reliable results in about five 
hours--about half the time of previous instruments.  Two 
companion products were also introduced--the Signal carbohydrate 
labeling kit and the GlycoSep carbohydrate profiling kit.
      
"The Myth of Invulnerability: Lesbians and HIV Disease"
Focus (09/94) Vol. 8, No. 9, P. 1;  Vasquez, Carmen
     Lesbians outside the mainstream community, such as lesbians of 
color or young lesbians, are the segment of this population most 
vulnerable to HIV.  Because they are less visible, the lesbian 
community--along with many researchers and scientists--have not 
worried about the problem of lesbians and HIV.  Much is still 
unknown about female-to-female transmission of HIV, but it is 
clear that it is more difficult to transmit HIV between women 
having unprotected sex than it is while injecting drugs or having
unprotected sex with a man.  It is still possible that HIV 
transmitted through vaginal secretions can be infectious over 
time if it is in high enough concentrations, especially when 
there are existing factors such as herpes or yeast infections.   
Successful prevention for lesbians will come as the result of 
honest, non-moralistic HIV information that do not condemn them 
for their activities.
      
"Fear of HIV Infection from Biting Not Supported by Research"
AIDS Alert (10/94) Vol. 9, No. 10, P. 142
     Two recent court cases concerning inmates biting correctional 
officers indicate that the public is still worried that HIV can 
be transmitted by saliva, despite researchers' claims that HIV is
rarely--if ever--found in saliva and that its transmission has 
never been confirmed.  Still, HIV-infected prisoners who bite 
correctional officers tend to receive extended sentences, and 
inmates whose HIV status is unknown are often charged with 
attempted murder and aggravated assault.  Researchers at the 
University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 
Philadelphia conclude that the presence of infectious HIV in the 
oral cavity is uncommon.  Further studies should be made because 
of polymerase chain reaction data that show that HIV sequences 
may be present at a reasonably high frequency, and that saliva 
seems to contain strong anti-HIV activity that may be responsible
for the low oral virus concentration.  "It is clear that the oral
cavity will remain the focus for HIV research...," write the 
researchers.  Another study suggests that, in most cases, 
salivary inhibitors render the virus noninfectious.
      
"Kaposi's Sarcoma, Vascular Permeability, and Scientific 
Integrity: In Reply"
Journal of the American Medical Association (09/28/94) Vol. 272, 
No. 12, P. 922;  Witte, Marlys H.;  Borgs, Peter;  Way, Dennis L.
et al
     In a rebuttal to letters to the editor published in the Journal 
of the American Medical Association in response to their article,
Witte et al write that their piece sought clarification of three 
issues related to the enhanced vascular permeability that was 
reported in 12-hour Kaposi's Sarcoma "lesions" in the Science 
magazine article by Nakamura et al.  The letters fail to refute 
Witte et al's criticisms of the validity of the report's 
conclusions because of a poorly controlled experiment, 
inconsistencies in data, and the citation of "unpublished" and 
"in preparation" references and methods.  Witte et al write that 
subjects of their principle criticisms could have been avoided or
resolved by the use of proper controls, subcutaneous implantation
of cultured KS cells in a site remote from the EB tail vein 
injection, serial blood levels of EB-albumin complex to correlate
with EB extravasation into the lesion as corroboration of the 
extraordinary EB "leak rate" from plasma, and documentation of 
exact materials and techniques.
      
"Serial Killer With a Spit Sink"
Advocate (10/04/94) No. 665, P. 20
     Harvard University behavior scientist Dr. Leonard Horowitz has 
labeled Dr. David Acer, the late Florida dentist who was 
suspected of deliberately infecting his patients with HIV, a 
serial killer with a vendetta against the federal health 
establishment.  In his report on a three-year study, Horowitz 
writes that Acer displayed many traits that are common with 36 
known serial killers.  He claims that Acer believed that the U.S.
Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention had intentionally infected gay men with HIV during a 
late 1970s experimental hepatitis B vaccination study.  The CDC 
says that there is no evidence that Acer deliberately infected 
his patients with HIV.
      
"Profile: Southern Comforts"
Far Eastern Economic Review (09/29/94) Vol. 157, No. 39, P. 78;  
Pais, Arthur
     As the only infectious diseases specialist living in Johnson 
City, Tenn., in 1985, Ethiopian-born Abraham Verghese had to 
learn how to treat AIDS in "a town of clean-living, good country 
people."  He had to encounter his own fear of AIDS, as well as 
the fears of nurses who believed AIDS patients deserved what they
got and doctors who were uncomfortable treating people with AIDS 
and referred them to Verghese.  The courageous stories of his 
patients prompted Verghese to write the book, My Own Country, 
which documented their problems as AIDS became part of a 
conservative rural city.  Verghese wrote that "AIDS pulls you 
across the threshold of your own upbringing and 
constraints...[AIDS patients] act as mirrors and make you reflect
upon questions of your own morality."  In the future, he plans to
write short stories about AIDS to "encourage young people to 
become doctors and take up specialties that aren't popular."
      
"Educated Traveler: Good Deeds"
Successful Meetings (10/94) Vol. 43, No. 11, P. 38
     The Swissotel lodging chain will contribute $1 to AIDS research 
for each reservation made between October and December 31 through
the SABRE computer reservation group.
      
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